NEC Corp., Japan's largest personal computer maker, said Tuesday it aims for higher sales and profitability at its chip unit as the firm wants to triple earnings this business year.
"NEC Group can't grow without the growth of its chip business," President Kaoru Yano told a news conference, adding he was "not satisfied" with the chip unit's earnings targets for the year to March 31, 2010, and would ask for "much higher growth."
NEC Electronics Corp., which accounts for 15 percent of NEC's revenue, has forecast sales to increase to 800 billion yen in the year ending in March 2010, with an expected operating profit margin of 5 percent.
The chip unit posted sales of 692 billion yen for the year that ended March 31, and an operating loss of 28.6 billion yen.
NEC, targeting a return to profit this year in its semiconductor and mobile phone businesses, is cutting costs, including research spending in the chip unit, and making more expensive handsets in China.
In May, NEC forecast net income to rise to 30 billion yen this business year from 9.13 billion yen the year before, as sales increase 1 percent to 4.7 trillion yen.